It’s been an interesting transition back to the school year schedule. I don’t want to say it has been smooth, but it certainly hasn’t been difficult.
One of the biggest adjustments is having Xavier in afternoon preschool. Notice I put this above working around a 3 month old infant. I’ll get to that in a bit. No, Xavier’s new schedule has been a challenge because at the age of 4 his sense of time is still not fully developed. He is used to going to preschool in the morning, after breakfast and being dropped off with everybody else, then coming home and having lunch. Now he comes home after dropping off his siblings at school (well, not by himself, I’m the one taking everybody out the door) then has to wait until after lunch to go to preschool. This was confusing to him as the school year started but he is getting the hang of it now.
In the mornings after dropping off Ciárán, Déla and August I take Xavier and Tevye on whatever errands need to happen. I try to time things for Tevye to get in a morning nap. Laura leaves for work about 7 in the morning so by the time we head out to drop the kids off at school he’s ready for some sleep. If I don’t have errands to run I’ll strap him to me and he’ll fall asleep. I’ll just keep him there and let him sleep like that for a couple of hours if need be. If there are errands to run the stroller is used to get the kids to school then Tevye stays in the stoller or transfers into the bucket for the car seat and he’ll begin to nap that way.
The trick, really, is how to keep his nap from being interrupted.
After lunch I take Xavier to preschool and we try to make it so that it’s not a rushed affair. His preschool starts at noon, which means he really does need to start eating about 11:15 or so. Getting a 4 year old ready while taking care of an infant is not always an easy task under the best of circumstances.
Overall it’s been a pretty good transition back into the school year. The older 3 make their lunches the night before, which helps the mornings not be as rushed. They were all eager to be at school and seen to be settling into their new classrooms and grades well.
Here’s to an exciting and fruitful (relatively stress free) start of the new school year.